Sell your Crafts Online
through Etsy.com

Are you looking to sell your crafts online?

Perhaps you took stalls at local craft fairs before you retired, but can no longer cope with all the lifting and other physical work they entail?

If so, you have a wealth of information to draw on, when you make your first steps into selling to a worldwide audience. However, you will need to do some market research online before you start. For example, you will need to find out...

if there is a steady demand for your skills and finished items.
What prices other crafts people are charging for similar items.
How much your products weigh and how much it will cost to post them.

Then you will need to decide...

How many items to make and over what time period.
Whether you will keep finished goods in stock at all times or just make some to sell occasionally?

Where to sell your crafts online

You can find out how to sell on eBay on another page, but you might prefer to use a site designed especially for selling handmade craft goods.

One of the best places is perhaps Etsy.com which has been online since 2005. In that time it has had over 100,000 sellers, and it offers every type of craft imaginable!

After setting up a free account, you will want to add your profile, describing the type of crafts you make and giving a little information about yourself.

Then you can start listing your products for sale. Etsy will charge you $0.20 to list each item, and once it has sold they will invoice you for 3.5% of the final selling price, not including postage.

Decide which category your items fit into. All the usual options are available such as candles, crochet, dolls and miniatures, jewelry, knitting, paper goods, quilts and woodworking. There are also other categories which are open to interpretation, such as Vintage, Patterns and even Everything Else.

Describe your product

In order to sell your crafts online you will need to write a clear description of each item. If you make things to order, rather than keeping them in stock, you will need to give an indication of how long it will take before the goods are shipped. If your home is smoke-free and pet-free you might also want to include that in your description.

You can also tag your items, to make it easier for people to find them.

Lastly add up to 5 clear photographs, taken from different angles and showing any close-up details.

After the sale

When you sell your crafts online through Etsy, be sure to package them safely and get them off to their new owner promptly.

This is an important step in the process, as in a similar fashion to that of eBay, each customer can give feedback. With 100% positive feedback future customers are going to have confidence in buying from you.